Bill Vinson

European Trip: Munich, Germany

Family selfie from the Marienbrücke with Castle Neuschwanstein in the background Family selfie from the Marienbrücke with Castle Neuschwanstein in the background Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max
Family selfie from the Marienbrücke with Castle Neuschwanstein in the background

Munich Itinerary

Munich is the city that I believe everyone was most interested in visiting. I was especially focused on this part of the trip as I have visited before, but that was in the summer of 1990.

Travel Day (June 27, 2024)

We got to the main Berlin train station and were waiting for our train to arrive. Ian and I went to grab some pastries for the train from Le Crobag and got turned around in the train station (it was quite large) and ended up on the opposite end of the platform trying to make our way towards Heather and Ben. Unfortunately, the train was preparing to leave. As we found each other and started making our way towards our car, it was obvious the train was about to pull out and the attendants were yelling at us to get on. It hadn't occurred to me that we could board any car and just make our way through the train. It's not like we do a lot of train travel in the US, but I'm thankful they got us on despite their annoyance with our ignorance. The train ride itself was enjoyable. Much nicer than Amtrak at home and fairly comfortable. We had a nice table where our 4 seats faced inward and we could eat or play on our devices during the trip. Once in Munich, we made our way to our hotel, Holiday Inn Munich - Unterhaching [1].

You may be asking why an American hotel brand? Well, it wasn't sought out specifically, but I need hotel rooms with >1 room if at all possible given there were the 4 of us. I had also aimed for air conditioning being available. The room I booked was a downstairs bedroom/living room with an upstairs bedroom. It would've been perfect, but the AC only cooled the upstairs bedroom and not the downstairs and given the high heat in Germany, that wasn't a great option. They were kind enough to relocate us to a living room with sofa bed and a separate bedroom. It was a bit cramped, but much more comfortable at night.

We had dinner at the Hofbräuhaus Bräustüberl (brewery dating back to 1589, but the actual Hofbräuhaus opened in 1828 to the public). The meal was

Day 1 (June 28, 2024)

On our first full day in Munich. I got up and went out to a nice little take-out cafe and picked up pastries for everyone for breakfast. We didn't have a specific time to be ready, but we did have a decently full day of sightseeing. We then made our way to the station and rode our way into the city. We first went to the Munich Cathedral. It was a lovely building (that I have seen from a visit years ago), but I didn't take the time to climb to the top of the south tower at the time and sadly, the opportunity did not present itself again 🙁. We decided while wandering around the city to get some bratwurst and fries from Pommes Freunde. Definitely a chain, but it worked for the moment and it gave us a moment to sit, rest and cool down. We visited the Residenz München which is a former royal palace and contains lots of art and artifacts from the the royal families that lived there. Some beautiful pieces are interiors. It is definitely worth visiting. We then visited the Odeonsplatz and while Heather and Ben went to look at a Lotus car dealers shop, Ian and I went inside the Theatiner Church. It has a beautiful baroque dome and interesting yellow exterior. Finally, we went to dinner at the Augustiner Klosterwirt in the same plaza as the Munich Cathedral. Another night of excellent food and yet another Radler to drink.

Day 2 (June 29, 2024)

We had to get up exceptionally early on June 29 to get on our train to Neuschwanstein Castle. We got to the Taufkirchen train station a bit before 7am and grabbed some breakfast pastries and coffee from Café ImBiss. We then took the train to Füssen. It was a long ride with several stops and a required us to stand for part of the trip due to the train being completely full. Once in Füssen, we had to wait a bit, but then took a bus up to Hohenschwangau. From there, we made our way up to Castle Neuschwanstein. This involves walking, horse drawn carriages that let out below the castle or a shuttle that lets out above the castle. We chose the latter as our first stop was to Marienbrücke or Mary's Bridge. The bridge is positioned over the Pöllat gorge and while often crowded, offers some of the best views of the castle. We got some photos here and then Ben, Ian and I continued along some dirt trails to a bit more of a hidden viewpoint to get yet more photos.

After we were done in Hohenschwangau, we boarded a bus back to Füssen... or so I thought. We had actually gotten on the wrong bus. In fact, it was such a wrong bus, it never goes back to Hohenschwangau or Füssen. This was a bit of a problem as after we worked this out and got some local help to communicate with the driver (my German wasn't good enough, nor was he forthcoming), we got off the bus in the small town of Büching. This was a bit of a problem as we were quite a ways away from where we were supposed to be and we had a train to catch to get back to our hotel. Unfortunately, there wasn't much there, but we did find a cheese shop that was open and a kind lady helped us to contact a taxi to get us back to the train station. It was touch and go, but she helped us immensely. We couldn't buy cheese as it would be too long before we got back, so we bought sodas and thanked her again. If you ever find yourself in Büching, visit the Hoch'Alp Käsehaus as their selection looked great. One thing to note, I had bought our cell plans through Holafly, but they didn't include voice minutes. I was attempting to use Google Voice via my mobile to call the taxi and it just wasn't working. I'd say the eSIMs were pretty successful, but there were a couple of occassions where it just seemed to break down a bit. I think my kids were much more concerned than I was. I knew thts detail could be painful (in terms of lost time or money) & definitely wasn't what I was wanting, but travel sometimes goes awry and you just have to deal with what you've got. The taxi was great and got us back without costing too much money. We had a little bit of time, so we found some dinner at a small restaurant, Pizza Pub Döner & more. While it wasn't what we had planned for, at that moment, it was great. We also visited a very small renaissance fair that was going on in a park near the train station while waiting for our departure time. The ride back to our hotel was fairly quiet and we were all quite exhausted by that point.

Day 3 (June 30, 2024)

Day 4 (July 1, 2024)

  1. Holiday Inn Munich, Inselkammerstrasse 7-9, Unterhaching 82008 DE ↩︎